
Nearly a year after a Buddhist temple was victimized by a diversionary theft, White Settlement Police have named a suspect.
On Nov. 20th last year, a group of people stole $38,000 from the Wat Busayadhammvanaram Buddhist Temple on White Settlement Road.
A woman engaged in conversation with a monk while eight others ransacked the back area and stole the cash.
Now, White Settlement Police have identified the ringleader as 36-year-old Narcis Chiciu.
"We got a break in the case last month with some facial recognition software from a neighboring city (Westworth Village), which actually made a hit out of a police department in Florida," said Christopher Cook, the White Settlement Police Chief. "The main suspect -- ringleader, if you will -- had been involved in some civil and criminal activity in the state of Florida; and because they had that booking photo, it made a match."
Investigators believe the group targeted the temple based on prior knowledge of the facility having a large amount of donations during the month of November.
"If we can get Mr. Chiciu into custody, we may be able to identify the other female and male suspects that were with him," Chief Cook said.
It appears that the temple in White Settlement is by no means the only one the group has targeted.
"Since we put out this update, we were notified that Denver, Colorado, is working on a similar case in the last week or two -- again, diversionary theft at a temple in their city as well -- and we had three cases across the metroplex," Cook said.
If you have any information, contact Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at 817-469-TIPS or 817-246-7070, or via email at investigator@wspd.us.
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